


Wouldn't Know What To Say To The Person I Knew

by pandoradeloeste



Category: The College Tapes (Podcast)
Genre: Adam is a bitch and we love him, Gen, Hanukkah, awkward dreidel, no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandoradeloeste/pseuds/pandoradeloeste
Summary: “Is it really that hard to believe that I missed you and I just wanted you to have a nice Chanukah?”In which Adam antagonizes an entire residential college, Caitlin learns to gamble, and old friends reconnect.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from “Hello, Nice To Meet You” from Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

To: all-saybrook@yale.edu  
From: brandon.weber@yale.edu  
Date: Thursday, December 7, 2017 4:27 pm  
Subject: reading week reminders

Hi folks,

Reading week is almost upon us! A few reminders to make sure everyone has a safe and productive week:

* Quiet hours are from 11 to 8 on weekdays, and 1 to 10 on weekends. Schedule your movie nights, dance parties, and screaming into the void accordingly.  
* If you microwave popcorn, please check it regularly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Setting off the fire alarm for the third time this week is a bad look.  
* Open flames and heating elements are not allowed in the dorm. This includes space heaters, wax melt warmers, candles, rice cookers, and hot plates. See above re. setting off the fire alarm.

Thanks everyone! As always, if you have any questions, or if you want someone to scream into the void with, let me know.

Brandon

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Thursday, December 7, 2017 5:38 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

I assume Chanukah candles are exempt from the “no open flames” rule?

From: brandon.weber@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 11:05 am  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Unfortunately, Hanukkah candles still count as open flames and are verboten. Hillel is having a community-wide candle lighting and latke party next Sunday if you want!

Brandon

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 11:29 am  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

That’s ridiculous. Chanukah is a religious observance, the risk of fire is incredibly low, and it makes no sense to bar us from lighting when we have a Christmas tree in the lobby and people play Christmas music in their rooms nonstop for a month.

From: david.cheung@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 12:05 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Hell yeah dude, light em up, save me some latkes.

From: julia.martinez@yale.edu  
To: david.cheung@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 12:18 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Personally I’d love it if nobody burned the dorm down before I take my bio chem final, so Adam if you can hold off on fighting the Christian supremacist heteropatriarchy until after 5 next Friday that would be great kthx

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: julia.martinez@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 12:31 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

 _Nobody is burning down the dorm._ Chanukah candles burn down quickly, they barely make any smoke, I’ll be within ten feet of them the whole time, I’ll put down tin foil so that I don’t get wax everywhere, everyone please chill out.

From: aiden.russo@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 12:42 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

just let him do it, at least he knows what hes doing, my dumb ass almost microwaved a burrito with the foil still on it last week

From: karen.jacobsen@yale.edu  
To: aiden.russo@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 12:56 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Guys! Relax and take a deep breath! Finals are stressful enough without biting each other’s heads off over some candles. :-)

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: karen.jacobsen@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 1:02 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Karen, when someone comes for _your religious observances_ , I hope you also remember to ~relax~ and ~take a deep breath uwu (U◡U✿)~ 

From: carolyn.sommers@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 2:31 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

What if he lit his menorah in a common area? That way there would be more people around to monitor the candles (just in case). Adam gets to celebrate Hanuka, we all get to enjoy pretty candles, nothing gets set on fire, everyone wins.

From: brandon.weber@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Friday, December 8, 2017 2:47 pm  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Folks, please remember to be civil, or all emails to the list will have to go through moderators, and that’s not a good time for anyone. Stiles’s email list is on moderation because someone wouldn’t stop spamming the list. We can do better than _Stiles_.

To clarify, once again, all open flames, religious _and_ secular, are banned in the dorm. Happy to talk about it more offline.

Everyone take a breath, and please stop blowing up my phone during my last CS lecture of 2017.

Brandon

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Saturday, December 9, 2017 12:15 am  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

Fine. Who do I need to speak to if I want to get a reasonable accommodation for a religious observance? (A completely safe religious observance, and again I need to point out the _actual Christmas tree_ in the lobby that we all walk past several times a day.)

From: caitlin.park@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, all-saybrook@yale.edu  
Date: Saturday, December 9, 2017 11:47 am  
Subject: RE: reading week reminders

This seems like a great time to bring up the accommodations that Yale has made in the past for students whose religious practices have conflicted with rules and class schedules. In the last few years, there have been several times when exams fall during religious holidays such as Ramadan, Passover, Diwali, and Yom Kippur, and professors have always been willing to work with students to reschedule exams and extend deadlines as needed. (See attached email from Professor Ramirez regarding similar adjustments made when teaching a summer 2014 course.)

Furthermore, there is precedent for schools adjusting rules to accommodate students’ religious observances. For example, when Ramadan falls during the academic year, high schools that normally require all students to spend lunch in the same space have traditionally set aside a classroom or other space where Muslim students can spend the lunch period. A similar adjustment can be made to find a safe place in Saybrook for Jewish students to light candles during Hanukkah.

From: brandon.weber@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
Date: Saturday, December 9, 6:29 pm  
Subject: Hanukkah

Adam,

I’m taking this offline so that we don’t spam the entire Saybrook list. I sympathize, truly. I’m also Jewish, and this is a weird time of year, even without finals. Moving away from your family and the traditions you grew up with can be rough, especially when you’re surrounded by Christmas celebrations, and I totally understand wanting to carry on those traditions on your own. Unfortunately, some traditions can’t travel with us everywhere.

The Slifka Center’s annual Hanukkah party is actually pretty nice. They fry up a ton of latkes and jelly doughnuts, and they have a lot of menorahs so that most people who want to light can. The Hillel rabbi used to be a cantor so there’s a lot of singing. If you want to light this year, I really recommend checking them out.

Again, please come by my room if you want to talk about this some more.

Brandon

PS: The decorations in the lobby are generic winter decorations. If you think we’ve underrepresented any group, we can have that conversation, but I’d prefer to wait until next week because this CS final is kicking my ass.

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, caitlin.park@yale.edu  
Date: Sunday, December 10, 2017 2:37 am  
Subject: RE: Hanukkah

I was going to let this go, but you had to bring up the decorations in the lobby. Congratulations, you avoided putting up a Nativity scene in the middle of that sea of red and green decorations. That doesn’t make it “winter” decor. It _does not work like that._ You can’t just call a specific holiday’s tradition a generic winter tradition. We have an entire goddamn Christmas tree by the fireplace. It’s pretty, and I can appreciate the Christmas-at-Hogwarts aesthetic, but it is _not_ a winter holiday tree, and it’s insulting to pretend that it is. You can’t just hang a few six-pointed stars or a kinara ornament on a Christmas tree and call it “inclusive”. Find me another religion that decorates pine trees, aside from the pagan traditions that got columbused. Go on, I’ll wait. 

Don’t try to gaslight me into feeling included in this celebration when not only am I clearly not included, but I’m being _actively blocked_ from observing Chanukah. You may not care, maybe you’re assimilated to the point that you’re fine with lighting maybe once at Hillel and you don’t mind a holiday that is _literally all about resisting assimilation_ getting overrun by Christmas, that’s your business, but you don’t speak for all of us. If you don’t want to take five seconds to think critically about the house rules and make an exception for a chanukiah, have fun being on the wrong side of history along with Antiochus.

From: brandon.weber@yale.edu  
To: adam.hayes@yale.edu,  
Cc: marjorie.nesmith@yale.edu  
Date: Sunday, December 10, 2017 1:42 pm  
Subject: RE: Hanukkah

Adam,

I’m sorry you feel that way. As previously stated, all open flames are banned. Please feel free to email me or Marjorie with any questions.

Brandon

From: marjorie.nesmith@yale.edu  
To: brandon.weber@yale.edu, adam.hayes@yale.edu, caitlin.park@yale.edu  
Date: Monday, December 11, 2017, 9:04 am  
Subject: RE: Hanukkah

Thank you for looping me into the conversation. Brandon, you are correct; open flames, including Hanukkah candles, are not allowed in the dorms. While it is Yale’s policy to allow students freedom of expression and religious affiliation, that allowance does not extend to “[a]cting in ways that compromise the safety or bodily integrity of oneself or others” (please see attached guidance regarding free expression).

Adam, I appreciate your passion, but I am disappointed that you chose such a combative tone. Brandon does not set policy for Saybrook and does not deserve personal attacks. I expect better from you in the future.

Feel free to contact me with any further concerns.

Marjorie Nesmith  
Senior Administrative Assistant  
Saybrook College  
(203) 432-0701

From: adam.hayes@yale.edu  
To: camichaels@bu.edu  
Date: Monday, December 11, 2017 1:58 pm  
Subject: Fwd: RE: Hanukkah (wtf is this bullshit)

hey babe want to see my descent into madness last weekend (:

[begin forwarded message]


	2. Chapter 2

Caitlin was flipping through flashcards on her way back to her room on Tuesday, squinting in the twilight, and nearly tripped over Adam. He was sitting cross-legged on the pavement near the entrance to their dorm, wrapped in a sweatshirt and a parka, wrestling with a book of matches. A menorah with two candles sat in front of him on a sheet of notebook paper.

“Is. . .everything okay?” she asked.

Adam glanced up before going back to his matches. “Sure, everything’s fucking awesome. I’m freezing my ass off because I’m a fucking idiot who doesn’t know when to shut up, and now I can’t even light a fucking match. My night’s going _great_. How’s yours?”

She shifted her weight. “My roommate has a lighter I can borrow, if you want.”

“God, yes, _please_.”

Kate wasn’t in the room, but her lighter was lying next to the closet. She pocketed the lighter and grabbed a hat for good measure.

Adam was blowing on his hands when she came back down. “Thanks,” he said between breaths.

“Hold on, let me do it, there’s a method.” He took the lighter and lit the middle candle, whispering in Hebrew under his breath, used it to light the other candle, and sat back.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. Now I wait around for the candles to burn out.”

“How long do they take to burn out?”

“Indoors? About an hour. Out here, with the wind, probably less.”

“You’re just going to sit out here in the cold for an _hour?_ ”

“I’ve got a book.” Adam held up a copy of Lysistrata. “You don’t have to stay out here with me,” he added, a little defensively. “I appreciate you sticking up for me with Brandon, but it’s fine. There’s no reason both of us have to freeze.”

She glanced up at her dorm window, with its promise of warmth and leftover pizza and poli sci reviews, and found herself sitting on the ground next to Adam. “What? I could use a study break,” she said when he raised his eyebrows at her.

A laughing knot of students crossed the quad. “Is it weird that I didn’t know you were at Yale until you sent that email?” Adam said, watching them enter Branford.

“You would have seen me if you’d been to literally _any_ house meetings,” Caitlin shrugged, a little guilty. 

She had also forgotten that Adam was going to Yale, until she’d seen him running to class across Old Campus in late September, too far away to flag down. Since then she’d seen him a few more times - checking out a book at the library, waiting at the bus stop downtown, sitting with Dylan and his friends in the dining hall and looking like he wanted the earth to swallow him whole. Each time she had thought about saying hi, but there was always something in the way - a study group she couldn’t walk away from, the bus pulling up as she’d drawn breath to call to him, and eventually the weight of too many missed connections - until last Thursday.

A crow squawked in a nearby tree. Caitlin pulled her sleeves down over her hands and watched the flames flicker. Adam ran his thumb over the spine of Lysistrata.

“You normally do this with your family, right?” she asked.

Adam rubbed his arms briskly. “With my dad’s family, yeah. My mom’s family isn’t Jewish.”

“What do you do after lighting, when you’re not sitting outside being stubborn?”

“Sing Chanukah songs with my little cousins. Eat latkes. Play dreidel, if someone remembered to buy chocolate.” He pulled a dreidel out of the pocket with the matches and rolled it between his fingers.

“I have a bag of Hershey’s kisses in my room,” she offered after a moment. “Feel like winning some of them?”

Adam raised his eyebrows. “Um, yeah, sure. Bring them down.”

Dreidel, as it turned out, was simple enough that Caitlin got bored quickly, even after winning most of the chocolate. Games of pure chance had never appealed to her. “This would be a lot more interesting if there were more players. Or if we were kids,” Adam said apologetically.

“Or if we were playing for money.” She unwrapped one of the kisses in her pile and sucked on it thoughtfully. “Actually. . .”

“We are _not_ playing for money.”

“No, not money. How about truths?”

“The fuck are truths?”

“The opposite of lies?” Caitlin swallowed the chocolate as Adam rolled his eyes. “My cousin taught me. We play a few rounds of. . .usually it’s poker, but I guess we’re doing dreidel tonight, and then we have the option of trading tokens with each other in exchange for honest answers to questions. One token is a yes or no answer, three is a sentence, five is a paragraph.”

“Like truth or dare, but with gambling instead of dares.” 

“Sure, I guess. You up for it?” Adam looked dubious. “Come on, it’s _got_ to be more interesting than reading about cockblocking as antiwar protest. Besides, I was in AP English with you, remember? I know you’ve already read Lysistrata at least twice.”

Adam sighed. “All right, fine.” He fidgeted with his stash of kisses. “So who starts? How does this work?”

Caitlin pushed three of her kisses toward his pile. “You can start by telling how long you’ve been sitting on that anti-Christmas rant.” 

“Anti- _Christmas?_ I thought of it as my anti-assimilation rant.”

“Whatever.”

Adam looked up at the deepening blue of the sky. “A month? Years? Hard to say. It’s always kind of bothered me how. . . _everywhere_ Christmas is, and how many Chanukah traditions feel like they developed in opposition to Christmas instead of just happening organically. But it didn’t bother me this much when I was still living at home.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You want to know the stupid part? I haven’t really cared about Chanukah for a few years now. My parents and I haven’t even lit candles for it since sophomore year. But here I am, freezing my ass off - literally - because I just _had_ to go off on Brandon.” He frowned. “I shouldn’t have called him assimilated.”

That sounded like a conversation Caitlin was _not_ qualified to weigh in on. “Maybe not, but it was satisfying to read.” 

“Yeah, but it was a cheap shot. I should have just kept my mouth shut and lit the fucking candles in my room without telling anyone.” 

“Your roommate wouldn’t have minded?”

“Nah, Dylan’s okay. Way too extroverted and. . .I don’t know, _normal,_ but he would have been chill with a little fire.” He took three kisses from Caitlin’s pile. “You owe me. That was a five-chocolate answer and a yes-or-no question.”

“So ask _me_ something.”

Adam put the kisses back. “Why did you defend me?”

Caitlin ate another chocolate. “For old times’ sake. It’s fun being on your team in an argument again.”

“Ah. Right.” Adam’s expression soured and he turned back to the menorah. A drop of wax was sliding down one of the candles.

“Also, it seemed like you needed someone on your side.” Caitlin caught the drop on her finger before it could fall. It burned for a second before cooling to just above her body temperature. “I know how you argue, remember? I know when you’re debating because it’s fun, or you want to make a point. You’re usually a lot more precise and less mean. This was personal for you.”

“So I was a charity case. _Awesome._ ” Caitlin blinked, stung, and started to argue, when Adam sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry. That was rude. It was cool of you to try to help me, no matter why you did it.”

“Is it really that hard to believe that I missed you and I just wanted you to have a nice Chanukah?” She flicked the hardened wax off her finger. 

Adam cleared his throat before scooping up three kisses and adding them to her pile. “Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses?”

“Definitely the horse-sized duck. Small horses seem cute but a hundred of them could really fuck you up. Horses are _mean._ Ducks are easy to handle if you have enough bread. Do you talk to anyone from high school, other than Caleb?”

“What do _you_ think?” He left the kiss she’d nudged toward him on the ground between them. “Do you still talk to Jessica?”

“No,” she said shortly. Jessica had disappeared into an anthropology program at Dartmouth and had ignored all pokes and texts since September. She added two more kisses to the one between them. “How come I haven’t seen you at any house meetings or dorm events?”

“Because it turns out that I hate _mandatory fun_ and _team spirit_ just as much in college as I did in high school.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Caitlin said. “It was kind of weird seeing you at football games. Would you have gone if it weren’t for Caleb?”

“Definitely not. How about you? _You_ like team spirit. Been to any games?”

“My roommate keeps trying to get me to go, but honestly? I don’t have time, and college jocks are a little weird. No offense,” she added hastily, thinking of Caleb. 

“No, that’s fair, jocks are definitely a different breed. At least Caleb is a little less. . .meatheady.” Adam’s face softened into a bittersweet smile before he shook himself a little and added two kisses to the three sitting between them. “Tell me something you like about college.”

“Ooh, a _paragraph._ ” Caitlin ate one of them slowly while she thought.

“If you keep eating those, you’re going to run out of chocolate.”

“Please, like we aren’t just passing the same five kisses back and forth,” she scoffed around the chocolate, and swallowed. “Okay, two-part answer. One: I like not having to worry about getting into college anymore. At some point I’ll have to worry about applying to law school, but for now I get to focus on the classes I actually _want_ to take. I don’t have to take AP calculus or physics to impress any admissions boards. Or be in a million after-school activities.”

“I thought you liked field hockey and all those other clubs.”

“God no, I hate running. I put up with it for four years so I could put a team sport on my college applications. And now I don’t have to run at all, unless I’m late for class, and it is _glorious._ I’m still going to be in one or two clubs, because law schools like it when you do something other than study. But I’ll have time to actually make some friends. That’s part two: I get to find my tribe. High school was. . .well, you were there, you remember how hard it was to find people you actually wanted to spend time with.”

“No fucking kidding,” Adam muttered. “But you had friends in high school.”

“I had a _few_ close friends, and a bunch of people I hung out with by necessity. And one of those friends doesn’t talk to me anymore. But Yale is a lot bigger, and I can find people I actually click with.”

“ _Can_ find people? You haven’t found them yet?”

“Um, not so much.” Her roommate was never home, and none of the people in her classes seemed interested in getting to know each other. “But the point is, I _will._ ”

“If you ever figure out how, let me know.” Adam tucked his hands into his armpits and stared at the candles. “One of the cruel ironies of being queer is needing a chosen family but not knowing how to actually, y’know, _make_ one.”

“I thought you and Caleb had a whole gang of queer friends to hang out with.”

“Ah, not exactly - I mean, yeah, a lot of them were queer - _are_ queer - but they’re more Caleb’s friends than mine. I’m not. . .I’m just me. I’m not special, I don’t get a ready-made community the way. . .some people do.”

Caitlin had a feeling there was a lot left unsaid, and she didn’t know how to unpack any of it. She settled for nudging him with her shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I think ‘just you’ is pretty cool. Why do you think I hung out with you in junior year?”

Adam rubbed the back of his neck and unwrapped one of the chocolates, and pushed another three into Caitlin’s pile. “What are the clubs you’re looking at?”

“Lawyers Without Borders for sure. I’m thinking about applying for that group that does ESL tutoring. Oh, and I signed up to usher In The Heights in February. You should come and usher with me. If you liked Hamilton, you’ll like this one, and you get to see it for free.”

“Maybe,” Adam said around the chocolate, sounding unconvinced.

Caitlin balanced three kisses on top of the less-neat rows left in Adam’s stash. “What’s your least favorite thing about Yale?”

Adam blew out a slow breath. “I have a. . .family member who used to bring me to Yale when I was younger, and the most random shit will remind me of her sometimes.”

“ _Oh._ Did she pass away?”

“No. At least I don’t think so. But we don’t talk anymore.”

“Yikes. I’m sorry.”

“Yep. It sucks. I really hope that goes away next year.”

“Good 2018 goal.” Caitlin tried to balance three more kisses on the ones she’d added, and knocked the whole pile over. “What’s a long-distance relationship like?”

“Fucking _brutal,_ ” Adam said immediately. “Don’t do it if you can help it.”

“Yeah, no danger of that. I want _one_ low-drama fling some time in the next four years, just to see what it’s like, but pre-law’s going to keep me _way_ too busy for a relationship. Local or long-distance.”

“Admirable.” He stopped reordering his chocolates long enough to put another five in her pile. “What are you looking for in a low-drama fling?”

“Hmm. . .” Caitlin drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. “Some romance. Not so much that I get completely swept off my feet, that way lies distraction, but I want to be courted, just a little. Someone. . .smart and funny, who has their own life and their own projects. Ideally not another law student - I’m going to be sleeping, eating, and breathing poli sci and law for the next seven years, and I’d like some variety. Good in bed wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not a deal-breaker.”

“So a power couple. But without the couple part.”

“Negotiable couple parts, but sure.” The candles were almost completely melted, and drips of wax were hanging off the menorah and collecting on the paper underneath. Caitlin hesitated, then lined three kisses in front of Adam’s pile. “If you hate long-distance relationships so much, do you think you’ll stay with Caleb all four years?”

“Jesus, Caitlin, that’s dark.” 

“Sorry, you’re right, that’s too much.” She started to scoop the kisses she’d put down back into her pile. 

“It’s okay, I’m not complaining -”

“No no, this was supposed to be a _fun_ game, not depressing, I’ll think of another question -”

“It’s _fine._ I’m always thinking about it anyway.” Adam chewed on the inside of his cheek and fidgeted with his watch. “I mean, I _hope_ we stay together. I love him - _obviously,_ or I wouldn’t put both of us through this long-distance bullshit. I just hope that’s enough. A lot can happen in four years, and Caleb’s got his. . .he’s got a whole other thing going on that I can’t be a part of. And I’m not looking forward to whatever conversation we have in four years to see if all this bullshit was even worth it. The odds of marrying your high school sweetheart and living happily ever after. . .they’re not exactly high.”

“I’m sorry.” Caitlin wasn’t sure if she was commiserating or apologizing for asking the question. 

“S’okay. At least we’ve got phones to stay connected. I don’t know what people in long-distance relationships did before Facetime or texting. I’m just trying not to think too far ahead. It’s the only way to avoid an existential crisis about it.” He smiled crookedly down at his watch.

“I’m starting to think my power not-couple plan is the better one.”

“You might not be wrong.” Adam looked up at the menorah. “The candles are out.”

Caitlin got up stiffly and shook the pins and needles out of her legs. “One last question for the road? Something that’s less of a bummer?”

Adam dusted off his pants and handed over three kisses before picking up the menorah and crumpling up the thoroughly waxed paper. “Tell me something good that happened this week.”

“Professor Beck gave me an A on my paper.” She covered her blush by bending down to pick up the rest of her winnings.

“Professor Beck. . .he’s the hot one that teaches intro to political philosophy, right?” 

“And a bunch of law classes. I’ll be seeing a lot of him for the next four years.”

“Oh, _really?_ ”

“Shut up.” Caitlin bumped him with her shoulder again as they went inside. “I will not apologize for enjoying the view.”

They paused in front of the totally-not-a-Christmas tree. “There’s eight nights of Chanukah, right?” she said. “You’re going to be out here again tomorrow?”

Adam closed his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, I’m committed now. _Fuck._ I am _not_ looking forward to that. At least the candles will burn out faster as I add more of them.”

Caitlin nodded slowly. “I. . .could be persuaded to come back. In a day or two, when I’ve defrosted.”

Adam picked a wax stalactite off the menorah. “My parents sent me a care package with fancy hot chocolate mix. I could bring some next time, so we don’t freeze again?”

“Sold.” 

He hugged her suddenly, and she let out a quiet _oof_ of surprise. “Thank you. I. . .really needed this.”

As she headed to her room, she called back, “See, I told you it would be more fun than Lysistrata.”


End file.
